Wildrose Alliance by-election win shakes up Alberta politics
Admittedly, I paid only a very minimal amount of attention to Alberta’s provincial by-election in Calgary–Glenmore, but I was initially very surprised to learn that outgoing Wildrose Alliance leader Paul Hinman won the race by a narrow margin, capturing the first seat ever for the fledgling party, at the expense of the long-governing Progressive Conservatives. A few thoughts:
First, I’m glad to see a new party enter Alberta’s provincial legislature — additional voices can only be good for democracy, especially in a province where one party has dominated for decades. It will be interesting to assess the impact of this development in Alberta’s next election — will it split the right and allow Liberal and NDP candidates to come up the middle? Will small-c conservatives express their dissatisfaction with the decades-long PC monopoly on power by moving en masse to the Wildrose Alliance? Either way, the PC grasp on power weakend a little with this result — Hinman’s “Send Ed a message” campaign worked.
Second, voter turnout usually takes a hit in by-elections, but turnout in this race was nearly identical (40.5%) to turnout in the last general vote (about 41%, worst ever). Although these figures both indicate depressingly low voter engagement, I’m surprised it wasn’t worse yesterday. I guess if I were an Alberta voter, I’d probably feel disenfranchised, too.
Finally, I think smaller parties everywhere should be encouraged by the breakthrough of another smaller party. For instance, it’s only a matter of time for the Green Party. Federally, the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP (and I suppose the Bloc, too) have shown Canadians exactly how unprincipled they all are with their recent posturing and games of political chicken. Harper, Ignatieff and Layton may spin their actions however they please, but it’s abundantly transparent that self-interest — not the well-being of Canadians — is at the heart of each move. The time is ripe for a party like the Greens to capitalize on Canadians’ disgust with old-line parties and their failed policies, and this is what we must do in the next federal electioin.
Alberta is truly an interesting place, as Albertans feel they are god’s chosen people. While following this by-election I came across something called the “Democratic Renewal Project” http://www.drproject.ca This group advocates cooperation between Alberta’s LIBS/NDP/Greens by running single candidates, in order to defeat the governing PC party. Funny the DR Project has received little buzz outside the province of Alberta. I would like to see the current Harper defeated in the same manner, using non-compete agreements and running just a single candidate against a CPC opponent. Apparently there is currently little support for such a scheme, at this time. God forbid if Harper gets his majority, the left will have no choice but consider this option, in the future!
I share your sentiment on the PCs losing a seat in Alberta however, just to clarify, the Wildrose Alliance isn’t a “new” party. Hinman was a sitting MLA from 2004 – 2008 while serving as the Leader of the Alberta Alliance (the precursor to Wildrose Alliance) before losing his seat in the 2008 general election.
As I pointed out on my blog (http://reportongreens.blogspot.com/2009/09/be-nice-to-conservatives.html), the Greens could make serious inroads with small-c conservatives by targetting big-C Conservatives ridings with messaging highlighting the GPC’s conservative side.
It’s the whole “attract more flies with honey than vinegar” strategy.
Mark, perhaps “newish” would be a better term! I’m still thinking of the entire Alberta Alliance/Wildrose Alliance phenomenon as relatively new as both parties only formed in the past five years or so.
At any rate, you make a lot of great points in your recent post on targeting conservatives.
Their campaign theme “Send a message to the government”, has been used a million times before (probably because it works so reliably). But it could work for GPC this fall.
“If you are tired of the mainstream parties calling needless elections every year to serve their own self-interest, Send a Message. Vote Green this time.”
But that would require us to criticize the Liberals in fair measure, which is still apparently forbidden.
I wouldn’t necessarily celebrate the Wildrose Alliance message in the legislature. If the Wildrose Alliance replaces the Progressive Conservatives (which will happen if the Liberals do not do some serious re-branding) we’ll have a provincial government that mirrors the right wing ideology of our federal representatives.
I’ll take a left-leaning PC party over an overtly right-wing Wildrose Alliance.
Alberta, despite its modern one sidedness has an interesting history with political parties. It was home to the United Farmers turned Progressive Party, then Social Credit, before giving way to the current PC dynasty. Federally, the reform grew out of there as well.
The original social credit party as formed there was actually the first party to propose a guaranteed annual income..
In addition to keeping environmental issues on the table, a Green vote is a lovely way for voters to show the big parties how angry they are at their failure to work together and govern the country.